Neha Aggarwal leads paddlers' charge

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October 15, 2008 19:34 IST

Olympian Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal moved into the semi-finals after thumping victories in the table tennis competition at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune on Wednesday.

Neha showed her superiority as she overcame Anniessa Benstrong of Seychelles 11-4, 12-10, 11-2, 11-3 to reach the quarters and then followed it up with a 11-8, 11-7, 11-4, 11-7 victory over England's Karina Le Fevre.

Meanwhile, Kolkata girl Soumi Mondal rallied splendidly to earn a place in the semi-finals. She defeated Wan May Skueh of Malaysia 8-11, 11-2, 11-4, 11-4, 11-13, 11-3.

Earlier in the morning, she beat Canadia's Emmanuelle Lavoie 11-4, 11-1, 11-3, 11-6 to set up a meeting with Skueh.

In the boys' singles, sixth seed Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran won their respective singles matches and stormed into the semi-final league.

In a see-saw battle, Soumyajit Ghosh was stretched to limit as England's Gavin Thomas matched him stroke for stroke. But the Indian held his nerve to win a marathon seven-game 11-6, 8-11, 9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 11-2, 11-7 and reach the semi-finals.

Earlier, he posted an impressive 11-7, 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 11-6 win over Canada's Ling Kun Yang to book a quarter-final place with Gavin.

Sathiyan Gnanasekaran had an uphill task but the Indian came good to beat England's Liam Benjamin Pitchford 11-6, 11-9, 9-11, 3-11, 11-4, 11-7 and then won his quarter-final match as well.

Two games up, Sathiyan encountered strong resistance from his English counterpart, who leveled scores by winning the third and fourth games, in the first match of the day.

The Indian, however, clawed back and did not let his opponent any more leeway as he won two successive games to end a 36-minute long battle and move into the quarter-final stage.

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